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Exclusive: Cara Delevingne Is a Designer! The Model Talks DKNY, Social Media, and More

It’s a dreary and rainy Saturday afternoon at DKNY’s Madison Avenue flagship and Cara Delevingne, supermodel in the making, girl of the moment—for quite a few moments, now—September Vogue #Instagirl and newly minted designer (more on that in a minute) is in her easygoing element, bobbing her head to the beat of the appropriately hip background music, comfortably sprawled out and largely upside down on a couch. Which is all to say that depending on how voraciously you follow social media, it may or may not surprise you to learn that the 22-year-old is exactly like her Instagram—fun, wacky, off-the-cuff—essentially, the human embodiment of a virtual exclamation point.

And lest you think Delevigne’s lounging conveys anything less than sincere fatigue, the model’s day has begun at a sprint. The social media maven has just arrived from the nearby Bloomingdale’s at Fifthy-Ninth Street and Lexington Avenue, where she was quite literally shouting the news of her fifteen-piece capsule collection for DKNY from the rooftops—yes, the actual rooftops. The model perched atop the store’s marquee and waved aloft large cutout “hashtags” that read #CaraD4DKNY for a bevy of fans below. Despite the early call time and elevated exposure to the less-than-ideal elements, Delevingne, clad in a look from her capsule collection (a nineties streetwear getup of low-slung suit pants, a sports bra, a casual gray suit jacket, and of course, a signature beanie), is undeterred, perched on various surfaces in repose, waiting to meet another group of fans.

“I was trying to think of what my fans and people my age like to wear," says Delevingne of the collection, her first foray into designing ready-to-wear. "I wanted it to be unisex so that anyone could wear it, no matter what shape, size, age, or gender they were. I added a touch of me in it: my tattoos, my favorite colors, and that type of stuff,” says Delevingne, who also leaned on her urban adventures and exhausting travel schedule for inspiration for the line, which errs on the side of streetwear and includes crop tops, a sweat/jump suit, tanks, tees, hoodies, track pants, and a cropped leather bomber jacket. “It is for someone on the go so you can change in a snap—there are a lot of features, like inside pockets—girls never get inside pockets in jackets! It was a lot about New York and city life, not anything ‘country.’ ” Another detail that makes the collection completely Cara? The inclusion of her signature beanie—here in black and highlighter yellow, inscribed with DKNYXCARA. “When I started moving out of my house, I began finding so many of my old hats that I used to wear to school, and while snowboarding. I just love the feeling of having something on my head,” says Delevingne, and this affection for toppers has a decidedly practical element as well: “I love my head being warm and I can’t stand being cold, so having a beanie keeps all of the heat in your head.”

It’s not just the style of the collection that is (literally) emblazoned with Cara’s influence. The collection’s press release was written by her, involving plenty of caps lock, as well as a version of her famous Instagram quote, which says the pieces of the collection "truly embrace the weirdness in all of us.” Even the promotion of the DKNY campaign revolved around social media—down to sourcing modeling talent via Instagram using the hashtag #CaraWantsYou. So, does the girl with 7.5 million Instagram followers ever unplug? “On planes and when I sleep!” says Delevingne, “It [social media] is consuming, but I love what I do, I couldn’t be happier. I never thought any of this was going to happen to me, so it is all a bit of a surprise. I just feel the love and the support and everything, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do it.”